a blood pressure regulation and stroke risk evaluation study in hypertensive patients treated with eprosartan

Conditions: Hypertension; Stroke

Summary: the primary objective of the study is to evaluate the proportion of hypertensive patients who achieve regulation of their blood pressure (bp) levels according to the european society of cardiology / european school of haematology (esc/esh) guidelines, after treatment with eprosartan for 6 months under standard medical practice conditions. the absolute change in systolic blood pressure from baseline will also be calculated. this study also aims in the evaluation of framingham stroke risk profile score of patients treated with eprosartan under standard clinical practice conditions during the observation period. besides the primary and the secondary objective of the study, the assessment of the percentage of patients who experienced adverse events (aes), serious adverse events (saes), adverse drug reactions (adrs), serious adverse drug reactions (sadrs) (overall and per observed event) and the percentage of patients who discontinued treatment prematurely before the advent of the 6-month observation period due to toxicity to the study medication constitutes another important objective that is related to the safety of the treatment.

this is an open, non-interventional, non-comparative study. therefore, there is no control group, randomization, or blinding involved. the target subject population is hypertensive patients who are being treated with eprosartan under standard clinical conditions and the locally approved summary of product characteristics (smpcs). treatment selection is independent of the study conduct according to the local requirements of the health authorities for the definition of non-interventional studies being conducted in greece. therefore, the inclusion/exclusion criteria of this study follow the clinical decision of the participating physician, when prescribing the study medication(s) under standard clinical practice. the study plans to enroll 600 patients from 100 participating centers (hospitals and private physicians). this number includes an additional 25% cushion compared to the required sample size to ensure that sufficient data is collected for the subsequent statistical analysis. the study has been designed to be non-interventional and subsequently follows the per center standard practice of treatment, medical care and visits. as a result a rigid visit schedule could not be imposed. however, when taking into account the overall local standard practice, an overview of the visit schedule is indicated per subject: * a baseline visit at the beginning of the 6-month observation period where the investigator will check the eligibility of the subject and will record the baseline data provided that the subject is eligible and has given the signed and dated informed consent. * a final visit at the end of the 6-month treatment period (also observation period), and * at least one interim visit (according to the standard clinical practice, within baseline and final visit)

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: 1. adult patients (age greater or equal to 18 years) 2. hypertensive patients, with a sitting systolic blood pressure above 140 mmhg or 130 mmhg in diabetics and high/very high risk patients, according to esc/esh guidelines 3. patients being prescribed eprosartan under the terms and conditions of the local label and administered according to standard medical practice 4. patients with at least one of the following conditions: * newly diagnosed hypertension, * inability to tolerate other antihypertensive medications, or * lack of response to current antihypertensive medication(s) exclusion criteria: 1. any contraindication to eprosartan or the excipients (according to the local label)

Keywords: stroke hypertension